Professor Recounts Years As Chief Economic Advisor for Indian Government

Swiftly moving from Cornell professor to Chief Economic Advisor of the Indian government was a unique but challenging transition, Prof. Kaushik Basu, economics, recounted. Baru, senior vice president and chief economist of the World Bank, described his life story at a talk Thursday. Basu said that his recently published book, An Economist in the Real World — which discusses economic policy development — was only written because he kept a detailed diary during his tenure as Indian CEA from 2009 to 2012. According to Basu, his sudden appointment to the CEA’s office and entry into economic policymaking was a somewhat traumatic experience for him. “The interaction between the world of talk and the world of action doesn’t happen so neatly.